Oak  Street 
UNCLASSIFIED 

MIDDLEBURY  COLLEGE  BULLETIN 

VOL.  II.  NO.  4. 

THE 

INAUGURATION 

OF 

John  Martin  Thomas 

AS 

PRESIDENT  OF  MIDDLEBURY  COLLEGE 

WEDNESDAY,  JUNE  24,  1908 

MIDDLEBURY,  VERMONT 

JULY,  1 908 


Published  by  the  College  four  times  a year,  December,  February,  May,  and  July. 
Entered  as  Second  Class  Matter  at  the  Post  Office,  Middlebury,  Vermont, 
under  Act  of  Congress  of  July  16,  1894. 


INAUGURATION  EDITORIALS 


MIDDLEBURY  COLLEGE 

THE  city  of  Burlington  and  the  University  of  Vermont  extend  congratulations 
and  good  wishes  to  the  town  of  Middlebury  and  the  ancient  and  honorable 
institution  of  learning  which  adorns  and  dignifies  it.  Middlebury  College  celebrates 
its  108th  Commencement  under  the  most  favorable  auspices,  and  inaugurates  to-day 
a new  President  under  whose  administration  a great  advance  may  be  confidently 
looked  forward  to. 

It  is  a gigantic  programme  which  President  Thomas  detailed  in  his  inaugural 
address  to-day— a great  extension  of  the  endowment  of  the  college,  the  modern- 
ization of  the  course  of  study,  with  what  is  in  effect  the  addition  of  a school  of 
science,  and  the  extension  of  the  women’s  department  to  an  extent  commensurate 
with  its  importance.  More  money,  more  departments,  more  professors,  more 
buildings — this  is  the  burden  of  President  Thomas’s  discourse. 

The  times  are  auspicious  and  the  new  President  is  the  man  to  carry  out  his 
programme,  extensive  as  it  is.  As  to  the  old  cry  about  the  consolidation  of 
Vermont  colleges,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  it  is  a condition  and  not  a theory  that 
confronts  us,  and,  such  being  the  case,  all  will  wish  President  Thomas  a realization 
of  his  brightest  dreams.  May  his  incumbency  of  his  office  be  long  and  prosperous  ! 

Burlington  (Vt.)  Daily  News,  June  24,  1908. 

A HOME  OF  THE  HUMANITIES. 

THE  change  of  Presidents  at  Middlebury  College,  Vermont,  calls  fresh  attention 
to  the  honorable  history  of  that  institution,  which  eight  years  ago  celebrated 
the  centennial  of  its  service.  The  new  head,  Rev.  Dr.  John  M.  Thomas,  is  a man 
on  the  sunny  side  of  forty,  and  progressive,  as  becomes  his  years.  His  inaugural 
address  glorified  the  consecrated  spirit  in  which  the  college  had  its  birth  and 
recalled  the  names  of  the  men  who  brought  it  into  being.  “ American  education 
has  no  more  heroic  story,”  he  said,  “ than  the  record  of  the  consecration  of  Painter 
and  Chipman  and  Storrs  to  the  work  of  establishing  a home  for  learning  in  this 
frontier  wilderness.”  He  paid  tribute  to  what  men  of  the  Stale  had  done  for  it  out 
of  their  poverty.  “ Humble  farmers,  in  hard,  trying  times,  their  every  shilling 
gained  by  severest  labor,  while  little  children,  some  of  whom  have  since  become 
pillars  of  the  nation,  crowded  their  hearthstones,  subscribed  hundreds  of  dollars  that 
the  college,  the  pride  of  their  fathers  and  the  hope  of  their  growing  boys,  might 
continue  its  beneficent  life.” 

A college  of  this  kind,  which  has  been  built  up  and  maintained  through  great 
sacrifice  and  severe  self-denial,  powerfully  appeals  to  the  affections  of  those  most 
familiar  with  its  history.  It  has  a peculiar  mission.  The  passion  for  education  has 
developed  more  rapidly  and  widely  than  the  means  of  gratifying  it  and  that  passion 
is  frequently  strongest  among  those  to  whom  the  doors  of  opportunity  seem  close 
shut.  The  sons  of  rich  men  have  no  trouble  on  that  score.  The  boy  to  whom  a few 
hundreds  a year  can  be  spared  can  take  his  course  in  comfort,  but  what  were  once 
considered  the  inexpensive  colleges  are  steadily  growdng  few^er.  Middlebury  is 
richer  in  scholarships  than  in  means  of  maintaining  an  adequate  teaching  force. 
As  President  Thomas  expressed  it,  “ we  are  doing  our  educational  work  at  a cost 
to  the  college  of  less  than  $150  a year  for  each  student.  I dare  to  boast  that 
there  is  not  a college  in  New  England  where  funds  count  for  more,  dollar  for 
dollar,  in  educational  results.” 

He  is  evidently  a friend  of  the  humanities  in  their  more  spiritual  sense.  “ The 
study  of  classics  in  college  is  not  to  make  classical  scholars  chiefly.  The  real  object 
is  the  mastery  of  the  qualities  of  mind  and  spirit  embodied  in  classical  literature.” 
All  studies,  he  holds,  whether  of  science  or  letters,  should  not  be  pursued  for 
purely  utilitarian  ends,  but  “with  a view  to  the  larger  development  of  manhood.” 

Boston  Transcript , June  27,  1908. 


THE  INAUGURATION 


OF 

John  Martin  Thomas 


President  of  Middlebury  College 


WEDNESDAY,  JUNE  24,  1908 


MIDDLEBURY,  VERMONT 
JULY,  1908 


ORDER  OF  EXERCISES 


The  Hon.  JOHN  WOLCOTT  STEWART,  LL.  D„  presiding 


INVOCATION  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Woodward  Hulbert,  D.  D.,  of  the  Class 
of  1879 

HYMN  “ O God,  our  Help  in  Ages  Past  ” 

ADDRESS  AND  DELIVERY  OF  THE  CHARTER  AND  KEYS  by  President 
Ezra  Brainerd,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

ADDRESS  on  behalf  of  the  Alumni  by  the  Rev.  Junius  Edson  Mead,  D.  D.,  of 
the  Class  of  1890 

ADDRESS  on  behalf  of  the  Faculty  by  Professor  Walter  Eugene  Howard,  LL.  D., 
of  the  Class  of  1871 

INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  by  the  President,  John  Martin  Thomas,  D.  D. 

HYMN  “ Lord  of  all  Being,  Throned  Afar  ” 

CONFERRING  OF  HONORARY  DEGREES*  by  the  retiring  President,  Ezra 
Brainerd,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


DOXOLOGY 


BENEDICTION  by  the  Rev.  William  S.  Smart,  D.  D. 


ADDRESS  AND  DELIVERY  OF  CHARTER  AND  KEYS 


BY  PRESIDENT  EZRA  BRAINERD,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


Honored  Sir:  It  is  with  great  pleas- 
ure that,  on  retiring  from  the  Presi- 
dency of  Middlebury  College,  I am 
permitted  to  greet  you  as  my  suc- 
cessor, and  to  transfer  to  you  the  in- 
signia of  office.  We  are  glad  to  call 
to  mind  that  you  are  an  Alumnus 
of  the  College,  as  was  your  esteemed 
father  before  you ; to  know  that  you 
were  born  and  bred  in  the  worthy 
traditions,  and  in  the  Christian  ideals, 
of  the  venerable  institution  over  which 
you  are  to  preside ; that  you  are 
familiar  with  the  good  work  that 
she  has  done  in  the  past,  and 
with  the  special  opportunities  as  well 
as  the  special  difficulties  of  the 
present ; that  you  enter  the  service 
of  your  Alma  Mater  with  the  loyal 
devotion  of  a son.  It  is  a further 
privilege  for  me  to  think  of  you  also 
as  a former  pupil,  who  was  foremost 
in  scholarship,  who  even  in  under- 
graduate days  disclosed  the  traits  of 
character  that  have  been  so  widely 
recognized  and  appreciated  in  recent 
years.  With  sentiments  of  personal 
esteem  end  affection  I welcome  you 
to  the  responsible  office  to  which  the 
Trustees  have  unanimously  elected 
you ; and  I pledge  for  them  their  loyal 
support  and  hearty  cooperation  in  the 
good  work  that  you  may  undertake 
for  the  advancement  of  Middlebury 
College. 

I would  first  of  all  place  in  your 


hands  this  ancient  parchment,  the 
charter  of  the  College,  granted  by  the 
State  of  Vermont  nearly  one  hundred 
and  eight  years  ago.  Its  provisions 
are  so  wise  and  so  broad,  that  in  all 
these  years  it  has  admirably  served  the 
growing  needs  of  the  College ; and 
this,  notwithstanding  the  great  changes 
that  have  meanwhile  taken  place  in 
social  and  religious  life,  the  country’s 
vast  increase  in  material  prosperity, 
the  marvelous  growth  of  science,  and 
the  world’s  new  ideals  of  education. 
Let  me  call  your  especial  attention 
to  its  broad  catholicity  towards  the 
creeds  of  theology.  Though  the  found- 
ers of  the  College  were  men  of  earnest 
religious  character,  who  held  to  the 
teachings  of  the  old  New  England 
divines,  they  deemed  it  quite  unnec- 
essary to  prescribe  any  special  religious 
service  or  any  tests  of  creed  upon 
those  who  after  them  should  be 
called  to  serve  the  College  as  trustees 
or  as  teachers.  They  had  such  con- 
fidence in  the  power  of  truth  to  main- 
tain itself  in  the  generations  to 
follow,  that  they  disdained  all  arti- 
ficial attempts  to  bolster  up  their 
beliefs,  such  as  were  sometimes  made 
use  of  by  other  institutions.  They  had 
read  the  noble  plea  of  Milton  in 
defence  of  liberty  of  thought  and 
discussion,  and  held  with  him  that, 
“ though  all  the  winds  of  doctrine 
were  let  loose  to  play  upon  the  earth, 


4 


INAUGURATION  OF  PRESIDENT  THOMAS. 


so  Truth  be  in  the  field,  we  do  injuri- 
ously to  misjudge  her  strength.  Let 
her  and  Falsehood  grapple ! Who 
ever  knew  truth  put  to  the  worse  in  a 
free  and  open  encounter?”  We  point 
with  pride  to  the  fact  that  the  history 
of  the  College  has  justified  this  faith, 
and  that  the  freedom  of  thought  and 
action  which  it  dictated  has  not  been 
misused.  Free  to  adjust  its  teachings 
and  methods  to  the  new  light  of 
science  and  philosophy,  and  to  profit 
by  the  lessons  of  experience,  the  Col- 
lege has  nevertheless  been  ever  faithful 
to  the  high  ideals  of  Christian  charac- 
ter that  inspired  the  founders. 

It  is  for  you,  Sir,  to  uphold  this 
liberal  charter  in  its  integrity.  As  it 
has  not  been  amended  in  the  century 
that  has  passed,  so  I believe  it  will 
need  no  amendment  in  the  century 
that  is  to  come.  Maintain  the  con- 
tinuity of  the  faith,  not  by  dogmatic 
assertions,  or  artificial  restrictions,  but 
by  cultivating  in  instructors  and  pupils 
supreme  devotion  to  the  truth  through 
whatever  channels  it  may  be  reached. 
Keep  up  the  true  apostolic  succession, 
not  by  arbitrary  rules  regarding  the 
election  of  new  members  to  the  Board 
or  to  the  Faculty,  but  by  calling  into 
the  service  of  the  College  from  any 
source  men  of  sterling  character  and 
of  clear  intellectual  insight. 

I transfer  to  you  also  this  key  to  the 
President’s  Office  in  the  old  College 
Chapel.  In  this  room  has  centered 
for  over  seventy  years  the  administra- 
tive work  of  the  College.  To  this 
spot  all  the  graduates  of  the  College, 
now  living,  have  repaired  from  time 
to  time,  when  students,  for  advice  or 
admonition.  Here  the  Faculties  of 
various  periods  have  held  long  and 
learned  conferences  over  varied  prob- 


lems of  college  policy,  or  under- 
graduate discipline.  Here  at  rarer 
intervals  the  honorable  Board  of  Trus- 
tees have  assembled  to  devise  meas- 
ures for  the  maintenance  and  growth 
of  the  Institution. 

I need  hardly  remind  you  that 
there  is  no  official  position  in  America, 
whose  duties  are  more  varied  and 
more  exacting  than  those  of  a College 
President.  He  needs  to  be,  at  least 
in  a college  like  ours,  a teacher,  expert 
not  only  in  his  own  class  room,  but 
competent  to  oversee  the  work  in 
other  departments,  and  to  coordinate 
and  organize  the  various  courses  of 
instruction  in  the  curriculum.  To 
him  the  Trustees  must  largely  look 
for  the  selection  and  maintenance  of 
an  efficient  Faculty.  The  College 
President  needs  to  be  a wise  discip- 
linarian, of  exhaustless  patience,  of 
kindly  sympathy,  of  keen  insight  into 
human  nature,  of  unflinching  courage 
and  inexorable  decision.  The  College 
President  needs  in  these  days  to  be  a 
man  of  business  ability,  an  economist 
in  matters  of  expenditure,  as  well  as 
an  inspirer  of  liberal  benefactions. 
The  College  President  has  responsible 
duties  to  the  general  public  : he  is  in 
demand  for  all  sorts  of  public  address  ; 
his  counsel  is  sought  in  all  organized 
efforts  for  social  and  religious  better- 
ment ; his  opinions  are  solicited  re- 
garding most  varied  questions  of  public 
policy. 

These  are  the  important  duties  to 
which  your  Alma  Mater  has  called 
you ; she  has  faith  in  your  ability  to 
perform  them.  I congratulate  you 
that  you  enter  upon  your  responsible 
work  under  such  favorable  auspices. 
You  will  have  the  best  of  material  to 
work  upon  in  the  earnest,  ambitious 


GREETINGS  FROM  THE  ALUMNI. 


5 


youth  that  gather  here  from  the  quiet 
hills  of  New  England.  You  will  have 
the  loyal  support  of  a Faculty  whose 
ability  and  fidelity  have  been  tried 
and  not  found  wanting.  You  will 
have  for  your  counselors  and  patrons 
an  experienced  Board  of  Trustees, 
men  eminent  in  various  fields  of  pro- 


fessional life,  who  will  not  be  disposed 
to  “ tangle  you  up  with  instructions,” 
but  will  simply  insist  on  this, — that 
your  work  prove  a success.  That  it 
may  be  eminently  such,  is  the  sincere 
prayer  of  him  who  now  most  cordially 
salutes  you  as  the  President  of  Middle- 
bury  College. 


GREETINGS  FROM  THE  ALUMNI. 


BY  THE  REV.  JUNIUS  E. 

Dr.  Thomas : On  behalf  of  the 
Alumni  of  this  College  I extend  to 
you  a most  hearty  greeting.  When  the 
Trustees  made  this  wise  selection,  we 
were  delighted  that  you  accepted  the 
office,  although  we  knew  that  other 
and  inviting  fields  were  open  to  you. 
You  have  had  a wide  outlook  on  life, 
but  the  office  you  this  day  enter  will 
require  all  your  experience  and  all 
your  talents.  Eighteen  years  ago, 
when  we  sat  in  yonder  class-room, 
Professor  Eaton  spoke  his  farewell 
words  to  us.  Pie  said  something  like 
this  : “ Young  gentlemen,  you  may 

not  see  the  reason  for  all  you  have 
learned  in  this  College,  but  some  day 
in  the  years  to  come  there  will  be  a 
critical  hour,  the  crisis  of  your  life, 
when  you  will  need  all  you  have 
learned,  if  you  are  then  to  be  master.” 
My  dear  friend,  I believe  that  hour 
has  come  in  your  life,  and  that  all  you 
have  gathered  of  knowledge  or  expe- 
rience will  be  here  needed. 

You  have  been  elected  to  this  posi- 
tion because  of  your  broad  culture, 
your  keen  executive  ability,  and  your 
strong  Christian  manhood.  But  while 
you  have  come  to  the  place  on  the 
basis  of  merit,  the  element  of  friend- 


MEAD,  D.D.,  CLASS  OF  1890. 

ship  is  not  wanting.  Robert  Louis 
Stevenson  once  wrote  : 

“ It’s  an  overcome  sooth  fo’  age  an’  youth, 

And  it  brooks  wi’  nae  denial, 

That  the  dearest  friends  are  the  auldest 
friends, 

And  the  youth  are  just  on  trial.” 

You  are  an  old  friend,  a brother 
beloved,  and  your  period  of  probation 
is  long  past.  Your  friendship  and 
worth  have  been  tested  by  the  great 
body  of  the  Alumni.  If  a stranger 
had  come  to  take  up  this  work,  he 
must  needs  have  waited  to  become 
acquainted.  You  can  begin  your  work 
tomorrow.  You  have  begun  it  already. 
You  understand  us  and  we  understand 
you. 

The  Alumni  rejoice  that  you  have 
not  come  to  the  College  in  a timfe  of 
decadence.  It  was  otherwise  when 
the  honored  man  who  steps  down 
from  the  President’s  chair  to-day  took 
his  place.  Then  the  college  lacked 
students,  lacked  buildings,  and,  worst 
of  all,  lacked  courage.  The  past  ten 
years  especially  have  been  marked  by 
great  advancement.  He  has  left  a 
monument  behind  him.  You  have 
come  to  Middlebury  College  in  a 
time  of  opportunity.  And  great  as  has 


6 


INAUGURATION  OF  PRESIDENT  THOMAS. 


been  the  achievment  of  the  past,  that 
of  the  future  must  be  greater.  We 
believe  in  the  kind  of  evolution  that 
has  visible  movement  in  it,  that  makes 
each  to-morrow  better  than  to-day. 
College  halls  are  no  longer  dreary 
cloisters,  but  are  pulsing  with  a new, 
practical  life.  The  next  ten  years 
should  mean  very  much  to  the  College, 
while  she  keeps  in  the  front  ranks  of 
progress. 

We  profoundly  believe  in  the  crea- 
tion of  a strong  College  spirit.  Better 
one  man  who  goes  out  proud  of  his 
Alma  Mater  than  a thousand  who  are 
ashamed  of  her.  It  is  not  always 
largeness  that  counts.  We  do  not 
expect  Middlebury  to  be  among  the 
greatest  of  Colleges  numerically,  but  we 
expect  her  to  be  among  the  best,  and  we 
want  every  man  and  woman  who  goes 
from  this  platform  to  know  that  as  a 
fact,  and  to  be  filled  with  the  thrill  of 
it.  It  is  said  that  the  gallant  Sheridan 
was  once  so  borne  away  by  the  enthu- 
siasm of  a charge  that  he  got  ahead  of 
his  troops,  and  leaped  his  horse  over 
the  breastworks  among  the  Confed- 
erate gunners.  One  of  the  enemy 
was  so  taken  by  surprise  that  he  forgot 
to  fire  his  gun,  but  looked  admiringly 
at  Sheridan,  and  said,  “ How  many 
more  of  them  are  there  like  you?” 
As  they  go  out  from  this  College  in 
the  years  to  come,  rank  by  rank,  may 
they  catch  from  you  a spirit  of  loyalty 
and  enthusiasm  for  their  Alma  Mater. 


You  will  not  find  this  altogether  a 
rainbow  path.  The  great  men  who 
have  occupied  this  chair  for  more 
than  a hundred  years  have  had  their 
problems,  and  you  will  have  yours. 
However,  I will  not  magnify  or  dwell 
upon  the  difficulties  of  your  position, 
for  these  are  the  things  that  help 
to  make  us  men. 


“ For  life  is  not  as  idle  ore, 

But  iron  dug  from  central  gloom, 

And  heated  hot  with  burning  fears, 
And  dipped  in  baths  of  hissing  tears, 
And  battered  with  the  shocks  of  doom 
To  shape  and  use.” 


We  of  the  Alumni  want  you  to  feel 
that  we  are  with  you.  You  are  bone 
of  our  bone  and  flesh  of  our  flesh. 
We  believe  in  your  strong,  virile  man- 
hood. We  believe  in  your  courage 
and  in  your  plans  for  a larger  and 
better  College.  We  pledge  you  our 
fidelity  and  assistance  to  the  measure 
of  our  ability.  If,  like  Sheridan,  you 
ride  on  well  in  advance,  we  want  you 
to  feel  that  in  devotion  to  this  College 
there  are  many  more  like  you  who  are 
close  behind.  Some  one  has  said,  “ I 
should  have  been  proud  to  have  held 
the  spy-glass  for  Columbus,  to  have 
picked  up  a fallen  brush  for  Michael 
Angelo,  or  to  have  carried  Milton’s 
bag.”  If  we  can  give  you  a little 
assistance  wdth  spy-glass,  brush,  or 
bag,  we  shall  be  proud  to  render  the 
service. 


GREETING  FROM  THE  FACULTY. 


7 


GREETING  FROM  THE  FACULTY. 

BY  PROFESSOR  WALTER  EUGENE  HOWARD,  LL.  D. 


President  Thomas:  As  President 
Brainerd  has  been  my  teacher  and  I 
have  been  yours,  I have  become  by  the 
mere  lapse  of  time  a kind  of  “tertium 
quid”  to  span  the  chasm  of  the  years; 
and  so,  because  I am  an  older  soldier, 
not  a better,  the  agreeable  duty  has 
been  assigned  to  me  of  speaking  for 
my  colleagues  this  day  and  extending 
to  you  the  welcome  of  the  Faculty  to 
the  Presidency  of  this  College.  To-day 
President  Brainerd  comes  to  the  end 
of  his  long  and  honorable  service. 
Tenderly  we  unbuckle  his  armor  and 
bid  him  rest  awhile  after  his  long 
campaigns.  To-day  you  put  your 
armor  on.  Surely,  as  one  who  puts 
his  armor  off,  he  has  richly  earned  the 
right  to  say,  “ I have  fought  a good 
fight,  I have  kept  the  faith.”  And 
you, — young,  ambitious,  full  of  hope 
and  zeal  and  courage, — surely  you 
without  boasting  may  face  the  future 
with  a steadfast  heart.  We  thought  it 
a happy  circumstance,  Sir,  that  the 
Trustees  of  this  College  could  find 
within  our  own  family  circle  one  whom 
talent,  scholarship,  and  achievement 
so  well  fitted  for  the  honorable  and 
responsible  office  of  President  of  this 
venerable  Institution.  You,  Sir,  are 
to  the  manner  born.  You  are  a son 
of  the  College,  as  was  your  honored 
father;  and  by  all  the  ties  that  men 
hold  dearest  you  are  bound  in  love 


and  loyalty  to  our  Alma  Mater.  You 
are  familiar  with  her  traditions,  proud 
of  her  history,  jealous  of  her  fame. 
In  your  strong  hands,  with  the  bless- 
ing of  God  which  I believe  still  rests 
upon  us,  her  future  is  secure.  For 
more  than  a hundred  years  Middle- 
bury  College  has  stood  for  scholarship 
and  for  virtue.  You,  Sir,  who  have 
the  scholar’s  mind  will  not  be  faithless 
to  the  scholar’s  hope ; you,  who  have 
yourself  heard  the  apostle’s  call,  will 
not  be  forgetful  of  the  Christian’s 
faith.  To  this  exalted  service  then, 
to  its  cares,  its  duties,  its  responsibili- 
ties and  its  honors,  to  its  opportuni- 
ties and  its  rewards,  the  Faculty  of 
this  College  give  you  most  earnest 
welcome.  And  whatever  wisdom, 
whatever  judgment,  whatever  experb 
ence  we  may  have  withal,  as  they  have 
been  at  the  service  of  President 
Brainerd  in  the  days  that  are  past,  so 
shall  they  be  at  your  service  in  the 
days  that  are  to  come.  As  we  have 
been  loyal  to  the  College  in  his 
administration,  we  will  be  loyal  to  the 
College  in  yours.  And  I can  wish 
nothing  better  for  the  College,  and  I 
can  wish  nothing  better  for  yourself 
than  that  you  may  cast  as  long  a 
shadow  when  the  sun  goes  down. 

President  Thomas,  the  Faculty  of 
Middlebury  College  bids  you  Welcome 
and  Godspeed. 


8 


INAUGURATION  OF  PRESIDENT  THOMAS. 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 


SALUTATORY. 

Senator  Stewart:  Before  under- 
taking the  more  formal  duty  you  have 
just  assigned  me,  I find  it  in  my  heart 
to  say  a word  or  two  in  response  to 
these  kindly  greetings.  And  first,  Sir, 
to  you.  By  whomever  it  may  be  ten- 
dered, no  dearer  honor  can  come  to  any 
College  man  than  the  Presidency  of 
his  Alma  Mater.  I count  myself  most 
happy  that  in  receiving  this  high  com- 
mission I take  it  from  the  hands  of 
one  who  for  fifty  years  has  rendered 
honorable  service  to  the  Corporation 
of  Middlebury  College. 

President  Brainerd : I shall  never 
cease  to  be  grateful  for  the  kindly  and 
cordial  manner  in  which  you  have 
welcomed  me.  I am  here  because 
you  asked  me  to  come,  because  you 
summoned  me  to  take  up  the  burden 
you  have  sustained  so  honorably  and 
so  long.  You  were  one  of  the  first  to 
press  this  duty  upon  me,  and  I know 
that  in  no  manner  can  I show  my 
gratitude  more  acceptably  to  you  than 
by  successful  endeavor  to  promote  the 
interests  of  the  College  you  have 
served  so  well. 

Doctor  Mead : My  honored  class- 
mate, 1 thank  you  for  the  pledge  of 
co-operation  and  good-will  in  behalf 
of  the  Alumni  of  Middlebury.  I shall 
need  their  help,  and  I shall  rely  upon 
it  in  fullest  confidence. 

Professor  Howard : My  teacher  and 
my  friend,  spokesman  of  a united  and 
harmonious  Faculty,  I thank  you 


from  my  heart  for  your  assurance  of 
loyalty,  which  in  the  light  of  your 
record  I can  not  doubt.  If  any  other 
College  stirs  affection  in  deeper  meas- 
ure than  our  own  Middlebury,  I do 
not  know  it.  With  the  passion  and 
patience  of  that  affection  we  shall 
work  together  in  the  coming  days, 
shoulder  to  shoulder,  and  the  joy  and 
reward  of  our  life,  and  full  compen- 
sation for  its  burdens,  we  shall  find  in 
the  advancement  of  the  work  to  which 
we  put  our  hands. 

My  friends : That  I may  tell  you 
the  spirit  in  which  I undertake  my 
task,  I ask  your  attention  to  the  topic 
“ Religion  and  the  Higher  Education  ” ; 
later  in  the  hour  I shall  present  the 
condition  and  needs  of  Middlebury 
College,  as  I understand  them. 

RELIGION  AND  THE  HIGHER  EDUCATION. 

Education  is  the  outgrowth  of  the 
religious  spirit.  With  body  frail  and 
subject  to  a thousand  perils,  with 
knowledge  and  understanding  suffi- 
cient to  but  a trifling  fraction  of  the 
mysteries  that  beat  in  upon  his  life, 
with  the  universe  of  the  far  stars  and 
the  mighty  sun  crushing  him  with  its 
greatness,  man  would  yet  rise  in 
majestic  self-assertion  to  the  victory 
of  the  spirit  over  all  things  and  forces 
in  space  and  time.  This  heroic 
endeavor  after  permanence  and  per- 
sonal worth  is  Religion. 

It  is  an  essential  and  primary  act 
of  man,  the  necessary  expression  of 
the  higher  qualities  that  constitute  his 
manhood.  A creature  of  dominion  in 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 


9 


a baffling  world,  man  must  seek  unto 
powers  above  him.  With  a heart  that 
will  have  the  victory  beating  in  a 
frame  which  returns  to  dust,  he  is 
forced  to  faith  for  the  maintenance  of 
his  very  being.  He  will  not  be  the 
victim  and  sport  of  things  he  seems  to 
be,  and  that  will  is  the  guaranty  of 
religion,  which  is  therefore  part  of  the 
ambition  of  our  manhood,  as  native  as 
hunger  or  love. 

Religion  is  not  disinterested.  The 
savage  seeks  unto  his  fetich  that  he 
may  attain  power  to  conquer  his 
enemy,  or  otherwise  advance  his  inter- 
ests. The  heathen  in  his  blindness 
bows  down  to  wood  and  stone,  because 
to  him  the  wood  and  stone  are 
symbols  of  the  powers  that  control  his 
life.  Even  in  its  higher  manifestations 
and  noblest  form,  Religion  directs 
itself  unto  the  attainment  of  blessings. 
Art  must  seek  beauty  for  beauty’s 
sake  alone  ; philosophy  must  love  the 
truth  simply  because  it  is  the  truth  ; 
morals  at  their  highest  declare  com- 
mandments without  argument  and 
without  promise  of  reward  ; but  relig- 
ious feeling,  in  distinction  from  these, 
beats  unshamedly  at  the  temples  of  the 
gods  in  the  greatness  of  its  desire  and 
and  in  the  bitterness  of  its  need.  By 
his  faith  a man  will  before  all  things 
be  saved,  and  some  form  of  individual 
redemption  is  the  goal  of  every  variety 
of  piety. 

Religion,  therefore,  as  the  search 
for  the  means  of  greatest  blessing,  the 
quest  of  the  higher  and  the  mightier, 
has  ever  impelled  men  out  into  the 
regions  of  wonder.  Faith  dwells  con- 
tinually on  the  borderland  of  knowl- 
edge. She  retreats  from  that  which  is 
analyzed  and  described,  and  takes  up 
her  home  anew  in  that  which  is  still 


mysterious.  No  man  prays  at  an 
oracle  whose  utterances  are  reduced 
to  system,  nor  continues  long  his 
habits  of  devotion  when  their  effect  is 
fully  explained  by  psychological  laws. 
In  vain  they  bid  us  call  an  “act  of 
God  ” that  which  is  perfectly  under- 
stood. If  God  thunders  by  law,  the 
thunder  is  not  his  voice,  as  the  old- 
time  children  of  the  forest  heard  it. 
The  dryads  no  longer  fill  the  recesses 
of  the  wood ; we  know  the  woods  too 
well.  The  nymphs  departed  from  the 
waterfalls  when  men  grew  bold  to 
explore  them.  The  divine  is  ever  in 
the  unknown  and  mysterious,  upon 
which  the  common  hands  of  investiga- 
tion have  not  yet  been  laid.  Faith  is 
the  pioneer  that  pushes  out  into  the 
regions  of  mystery,  and  brings  back 
vague  and  marvelous  reports,  which 
challenge  inquiry  and  form  new  sub- 
jects for  investigation. 

Men  at  one  time  worshiped  fire. 
How  marvelous  the  flame,  flashing 
from  the  sky,  at  places  belching  from 
the  earth,  tearing  up  great  trees,  con- 
suming the  grass  of  the  far-stretching 
plains ! With  awe  and  wonder  the 
early  peoples  sought  to  receive  good  at 
the  hand  of  fire,  and  to  save  them- 
selves from  harm  at  its  hands : they 
designated  men  to  care  for  it,  to  pre- 
pare their  offerings  to  it,  and  to  pro- 
pitiate it.  Thus  they  learned  to  con- 
trol the  fire  and  use  it,  and  when  the 
fire  became  their  servant,  they  sought 
another  god  Worship  led  to  knowl- 
edge : religion  advanced  civilization. 

In  the  great  plain  of  Babylonia, 
where  the  circle  of  the  earth  is  so  vast 
and  the  inhabitants  but  as  grasshoppers, 
men  worshiped  the  stars,  believing 
that  the  heavenly  bodies  controlled 
the  destinies  of  individuals  and  nations. 


IO 


INAUGURATION  OF  PRESIDENT  THOMAS. 


They  studied  the  movements  of  sun 
and  moon,  and  the  laws  of  planetary 
motion,  in  religious  longing  to  attain 
good  and  assert  the  rule  of  the  spirit, 
and  from  that  study,  with  its  religious 
motive,  the  sciences  of  mathematics 
and  astronomy  came  into  being. 

In  primitive  times,  wnen  tribes  of 
hunters  or  herdsmen  roamed  the 
forests  and  plains,  they  thought  of  their 
clan  as  the  descendants  of  a particular 
deity,  who  would  avenge  upon  the 
tribe  a wrong  committed  by  any  mem- 
ber of  it.  Thus  arose  the  very  idea 
of  public  right.  In  its  earliest  stages 
law  is  all  intermingled  with  religious 
concepts  and  usages.  Faith  laid 
the  foundation  of  the  temple  of 
justice. 

Through  long  centuries  the  priests 
were  the  only  physicians.  The  super- 
ficial observer  points  to  the  horrors  of 
priestly  magic  in  the  attempted  cure 
of  disease,  and  the  superstitions  that 
plague  us  still  because  of  the  confusion 
of  physical  healing  with  religious  faith. 
More  carefully  studied  and  more  justly 
observed,  the  science  of  medicine  had 
its  beginning  in  the  crude  attempts  of 
religious  men  to  deliver  humanity  from 
its  enemies.  The  impulse  was  reli- 
gious ; in  religion  medicine  had  its 
birth. 

Chemistry  betrays  its  religious  origin 
in  the  superstitions  of  alchemy. 
Sculpture  was  at  one  time  piety,  music 
was  worship,  all  art  was  devotion  to 
the  gods.  Religion  has  been  the 
mother  of  beauty  and  the  resourceful 
pioneer  of  progress.  In  his  heroic  en- 
deavor to  conquer  the  world,  in  his 
resolution  to  attain  good  despite  all 
powers  of  evil,  man  has  reduced  to 
law  one  after  another  the  provinces  of 
information  to  which  his  attention  has 


been  attracted,  pressed  ever  farther 
back  the  borders  of  the  unknown, 
made  himself  continuously  master  of 
new  arts,  a victor  in  new  fields. 

They  are  vigorous  and  independent 
children  whom  religion  rears,  and  they 
refuse  to  abide  under  the  surveillance 
and  authority  of  the  mother  who 
brought  them  into  being.  Astronomy 
set  out  on  her  own  way  at  length,  and 
in  the  prison  of  Galileo  wrote  her  de- 
claration of  independence.  Art,  the 
awkward  infant  that  drew  in  every 
particle  of  her  early  nourishment  from 
religion,  long  since  grew  strong  in  her 
own  right,  and  beauty,  which  once  had 
no  life  apart  from  the  gods,  has  won 
such  place  in  human  affection  that  her 
lovers  give  her  form  for  her  own  fair 
sake  alone.  The  law  is  independent, 
and  medicine  also,  although  it  proves 
to  be  most  difficult  for  religious  people 
to  keep  their  fingers  off  the  humane 
endeavors  of  the  healing  art.  Since 
Immanuel  Kant  it  has  been  recognized 
that  even  the  moral  law  must  learn  to 
do  without  religious  sanction,  that  no 
man  is  thoroughly  good  until  the  right 
commands  his  will  by  its  own  inherent 
majesty. 

It  might  seem  that  the  religious 
spirit  has  served  its  purpose  in  educa- 
tion, and  is  no  longer  needed  to  furnish 
objects  of  inquiry  or  to  stimulate 
achievement.  The  children  of  faith 
appear  to  have  reached  manhood,  and 
to  be  entirely  competent  to  go 
their  own  way.  Law  is  established, 
and  men  can  go  on  perfecting  govern- 
ment and  social  usages  by  the  princi- 
ples of  justice  already  established. 
The  love  of  beauty  will  continue  to 
lead  into  ever  fairer  artistic  expression. 
Limitless  fields  appear  on  the  horizon 
in  every  physical  science,  boundless 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 


1 1 


opportunity  for  investigation  and  dis- 
covery, and  the  heart  of  man  can  be 
trusted  not  to  flag  in  the  pursuit  of  all 
that  is  worthy  and  good. 

Unless  all  signs  of  the  times  deceive, 
religious  organizations  are  destined  to 
have  less  and  less  to  do  with  educa- 
tional effort.  Sectarianism  in  educa- 
tion has  met  its  certain  doom.  The 
broadest  fact  in  educational  history  in 
recent  years  is  its  increasing  seculari- 
zation, using  that  word  in  no  deroga- 
tory sense.  In  the  Middle  Ages  the 
Church  did  all  the  educating,  and  the 
monks  were  the  only  school-masters. 
The  first  universities  were  as  much 
religious  institutions  as  the  cathedrals 
which  grew  at  their  side.  All  our 
early  American  colleges,  in  their  in- 
ception, were  religious  enterprises. 
When  the  clergymen  of  the  New  Haven 
colony  gave  their  books  for  the  found- 
ing of  a college,  they  but  created  a 
symbol  of  the  religious  spirit  with 
which  from  the  first  American  educa- 
tion has  been  permeated.  But  very 
gradually  and  very  steadily  the  Church 
has  gone  out  of  the  educating  business. 
The  clergyman  has  retreated  into  the 
background  in  educational  endeavor. 
The  older  colleges,  built  by  godly  min- 
isters, which  have  met  with  largest 
favor,  have  lost  most  of  their  religious 
manner.  The  institutions  lately 
founded  through  religious  enterprise 
are  often  small  and  feeble,  struggling 
in  competition  in  narrow  territories, 
while  by  their  side  Universities  of  large 
equipment,  with  which  the  cleric  has 
had  little  to  do,  are  steadily  over- 
topping them.  On  the  surface  at 
least  it  looks  as  if  our  colleges  had 
forsaken  the  mother  which  bore  them, 
and,  while  recognizing  religion  as  an 
innocent  enloyment  for  those  who  are 


inclined  thereto,  depend  no  longer 
upon  the  religious  motive. 

But,  in  the  meantime,  the  facts  of 
our  human  nature  have  not  changed. 
We  are  still  creatures  of  desire,  per- 
meated with  the  ineradicable  convic- 
tion that  happiness  and  blessing  are 
our  right,  and  pressing  on  therefore, 
despite  the  tragic  experiences  of  all 
our  fathers  from  the  beginning  of  time, 
to  some  far  haven  of  peace  and  quiet- 
ness, where  the  weary  are  at  rest. 
We  are  still  held  irresistibly  to  upward 
striving;  to  stop  it  were  to  leave  off 
the  very  quality  of  manhood.  We 
may  never  desist  our  struggle  for 
assurance  of  permanence  and  personal 
worth  in  this  world  of  tempests  and 
earthquakes,  before  which  our  powers 
are  as  the  flutter  of  an  insect’s  wing 
in  the  roaring  of  the  storm.  These 
facts  and  forces  are  to  be  counted  on, 
as  blunt,  unescapable  realities,  impel- 
ling us  to  deeds. 

Now,  in  the  region  of  personal  values, 
the  industries  and  arts  in  which  our 
expanding  science  has  busied  us  are  of 
small  avail.  The  knowledge  of  things 
can  not  assure  the  triumph  of  the 
spirit.  It  is  the  veriest  truism  to 
declare  that  man’s  appetite  for  bless- 
ings can  not  be  satisfied  with  material 
goods.  Though  I speak  through  the 
sound  waves  of  the  upper  aether, 
though  I even  journey  through  its 
spaces  and  bind  its  every  mysterious 
current  and  force  to  work  my  will,  if 
my  inner  manhood  has  not  learned  its 
worth,  it  profiteth  me  nothing.  A man 
is  no  more  than  his  soul,  and  all  the 
inventions  we  call  so  great  do  not 
leave  our  real  manhood  one  whit 
better  advantaged  than  was  theirs  who 
hung  on  the  lips  of  Socrates.  Man  is 
still  the  measure  of  all  things. 


12 


INAUGURATION  OF  PRESIDENT  THOMAS. 


Moreover,  the  worlds  science  has 
to  conquer  are  limited,  and  there  is 
tragic  sighing  of  spirit  at  their  end. 
There  is  no  ultimate  for  the  human 
soul  in  the  conquest  of  knowledge. 
There  is  ever  yet  more  to  learn,  and 
in  that  sense  no  end  to  science ; but 
the  process  itself  cloys  after  a little, 
and  testifies  that  it  can  by  no  means 
lead  to  a satisfactory  end.  A man 
may  ever  learn  and  never  come  to 
a knowledge  of  the  truth.  The  reason 
is  that  he  is  not  pursuing  truth,  but 
acquiring  facts,  classifying  and  labeling 
items  of  knowledge,  which  is  not  the 
acquirement  of  truth,  but  the  stuffing 
of  a museum.  Truth  is  vital  and  per- 
sonal ; it  is  fact  which  finds  its  way  to 
the  soul  of  a man  and  nourishes  his 
spirit.  There  is  no  assurance  of  per- 
sonal worth  in  the  mastery  of  any 
quantity  of  physical  fact.  There  is  no 
real  victory  of  the  spirit  in  science, 
however  perfected. 

If  life  is  worth  the  fight,  if  there  is 
any  hope  for  us  beyond  these  few 
years  of  struggle,  it  is  not  through  the 
telescope  and  the  discovery  of  new 
stars,  nor  yet  through  increased  domin- 
ion over  the  matter  and  forces  of  the 
earth,  but  rather  through  communion 
with  human  spirits  of  such  grandeur 
and  worth  that  life  as  they  reveal  it  to 
us  is  inherently  majestic  and  grand, 
and  perchance  also  immortal.  If,  in 
the  face  of  discouragement  and  the 
thousand  difficulties  of  life,  the  heart 
of  us  is  still  to  rule  in  courage,  if 
manhood  is  not  to  perish  but  to 
increase  in  honor  and  heroic  hold  on 
right,  the  hope  once  more  is  in  knowl- 
edge of  human  life,  the  good  and  the 
great  who  have  lived  our  life  nobly 
and  conquered  all  baseness. 

The  religious  spirit,  therefore,  which 


impels  man  to  seek  his  highest  per 
sonal  good,  is  a present  and  permanent 
force  in  education.  It  serves  to  hold 
us  fast  to  those  earnest  studies  of  the 
human  spirit,  in  its  noblest  manifesta- 
tions in  all  forms  and  in  all  ages, 
which  develop  personal  power  and 
teach  the  old-time  triumphs  of  men 
who  knew  their  worth.  My  funda- 
mental need  as  a man  is  not  to  know^ 
how  things  are  made  and  put  together, 
nor  how  they  act  and  react  on  one 
another,  but  rather  how  I,  physically 
the  veriest  atom  of  the  universe,  may 
rise  superior  to  the  entire  sum  of  the 
mass  of  matter,  and  be  myself,  despite 
the  boundless  universe  of  form  and 
stuff.  Therefore  I must  study  chiefly 
the  victors  who  have  gone  before  me  : 
I must  study  history,  because  it  is  the 
story  of  victors  in  the  realm  of  action  ; 
I must  master  the  literature  of  great 
peoples,  that  from  them  I may  draw 
in  the  courage  by  which  they  over- 
came ; I must  study  religion  also, 
because  it  is  the  work  of  heroes  of 
belief,  and  faith,  in  this  world  of  diffi- 
culty, has  helped  men  most  to 
overcome. 

We  learned  long  since  that  we  can 
put  nature  under  our  feet,  and  we 
have  consumed  no  little  useless  energy 
of  late  in  glorying  in  that  triumph. 
For  how  vain  is  the  victory  while  the 
contest  is  still  so  terrible  within  our 
own  soul,  while  millions  of  our  broth- 
ers go  down  under  the  onslaught  of  the 
same  old  passions  that  have  cast  down 
many  mighty  since  the  days  of  Samson 
and  David.  Humanity’s  contest  is 
within,  and  the  weapons  that  tell  are  not 
carnal,  not  physical : they  are  the  truth 
the  prophets  have  forged  out  of  life  ; 
the  songs  the  poets  have  opened  their 
hearts  to  hear;  the  visions  the  martyrs 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 


i3 


have  caught  from  God ; the  words  of 
spirit  and  life  which  men  of  thought 
and  insight  of  all  creeds  and  times  have 
written  for  the  learning  of  those  who 
would  hold  their  human  heritage.  We 
will  not  let  go  our  grip  on  that  which 
is  high,  and  our  upward  striving 
manhood  chains  us  to  the  humanities, 
in  whose  pursuit  alone  we  can  keep 
to  our  human  estate. 

These  same  religious  forces,  the  im- 
pulse to  permanence,  worth,  and  the 
attainment  of  blessings,  which,  as  I 
have  shown,  are  realities  which  will 
always  exert  their  power,  indicate  the 
spirit  in  which  all  studies  should  be 
pursued  and  the  object  and  purpose 
which  must  be  sought  in  them.  All 
branches  of  knowledge  should  be  fol- 
lowed in  a college  in  a humane  spirit 
and  unto  a human  end.  The  study 
of  the  classics  in  college  is  not  to 
make  classical  scholars  chiefly.  It  is 
not  to  be  counted  a failure  if  twenty 
years  after  one  can  not  read  Homer 
or  Horace.  The  real  object  of  classic- 
al study  is  the  mastery  of  the  qualities 
of  mind  and  spirit  embodied  in  the 
classical  literatures.  It  is  the  soul  of 
Homer  we  are  after,  not  the  language 
of  Homer.  The  boy  for  whom  the 
words  of  his  Latin  text  are  so  many 
awkward  ways  of  spelling  English 
ideas  wastes  his  time  over  Vergil. 
Plain  English  is  far  more  useful  than 
English  served  up  in  the  form  of  a 
Greek  or  Latin  puzzle.  But  if,  by  a 
little  use  of  will  and  application,  which 
has  its  own  intrinsic  benefits,  a young 
man  works  his  way  through  vocabulary 
and  syntax,  so  that  he  comes  to  feel 
at  last  the  untranslatable  beauty  and 
force  of  the  ancient  masters,  who  creat- 
ed the  very  idea  of  literature,  there 
will  be  no  question  of  its  benefit  to 


him.  That  is  what  I mean  by  the 
study  of  the  classics  in  a humane  spirit 
and  unto  a human  end. 

Geology  is  a pure  science.  It  has 
to  do  with  the  facts  concerning  the 
earth  on  which  we  live,  the  history  and 
manner  of  its  construction,  the  forms 
of  life  it  has  contained  in  the  vast  suc- 
cessive ages.  It  can  be  made  a mere 
catalogue  of  facts,  a dry  chronicle  of 
happenings  that  have  been  a very  long 
time  dead.  It  can  also  be  made  a 
marvelous  story  of  the  childhood  of 
the  world,  days  of  tremendous  physical 
catastrophes  and  changes,  through 
the  long  ages  beside  which  our  little 
human  history  is  the  tiniest  moment 
of  a child’s  afternoon.  How  then  the 
mind  is  enlarged,  and  the  vision  of  the 
eye  is  lengthened ! A man  then 
acquires  a sense  of  proportion,  a reali- 
zation of  his  size,  and  takes  to  him- 
self becoming  reverence  and  humility, 
as  a creature  of  but  a moment  of  the 
great  eternities.  So  taught,  geology 
becomes  a humanity. 

The  question  for  present  education 
is  not  whether  science  or  letters  should 
be  chiefly  pursued,  but  whether  science, 
and  letters  also,  shall  be  followed  in  a 
utilitarian  and  materialistic  spirit,  or 
with  a view  to  the  larger  development 
of  manhood.  One  may  study  me- 
chanics and  physics  and  become 
merely  a machine  ditch-digger,  of 
ditch-digging  manhood,  superior  only 
in  the  quantity  of  dirt  that  is  handled 
at  a scoop.  If  a man  is  concerned  only 
with  the  transportation  of  things,  it 
matters  little  whether  he  build  a cart 
to  be  hitched  to  a donkey,  or  an  elec- 
tric system  of  a thousand  cars  at  sixty 
miles  an  hour.  Things  are  things,  and 
their  size  is  of  little  moment.  But  it 
is  possible  to  study  physics  and  learn 


14 


INAUGURATION  OF  PRESIDENT  THOMAS. 


something  more  than  the  material 
properties  of  objects,  and  the  mighty 
forces  and  currents  which  may  be  set  in 
motion  in  physical  bodies.  Descartes 
observed  that  “scientific  truths  are 
battles  won”.  There  is  a personal  side 
to  every  physical  law  and  discovery. 
Somebody  found  it  out ; somebody 
gave  patience  and  love  to  its  discovery, 
sought  for  it,  not  for  lucre’s  sake,  but 
for  fair  truth’s  beauty.  The  bio- 
graphical side  of  every  science  is  of 
exceeding  importance.  Many  a stu- 
dent who  is  dull  and  dead  to  mathe- 
matical formulae  and  principles  could 
be  made  to  thrill  with  interest  if  the 
history  of  the  science  could  be  brought 
to  his  notice.  No  department  of 
study  has  a larger  and  nobler  story  of 
devotion  and  severe  labor;  none  has 
done  more  to  expand  the  mind  of  the 
race : none  is  more  richly  dowered 
with  tales  of  romance,  of  heroism, 
even  of  martyrdom,  than  this  pro- 
verbially dry  and  difficult  science. 
Only  a small  number  of  students  will 
ever  become  mathematicians,  and  few 
will  employ  its  principles  in  their  after 
life.  The  notion  that  its  problems 
furnish  the  principles  of  reasoning  in 
life’s  practical  problems  is  a baseles 
superstition.  The  man  who  tries  to 
work  out  problems  of  life  by  algebraic 
formulae  is  not  right  in  his  mind. 
Two  and  two  do  not  make  four  when 
you  have  to  do  with  persons.  But 
taught  and  studied  as  one  of  the 
sciences  that  have  nobly  occupied  and 
uplifted  the  men  of  our  race,  through 
whose  mastery  the  student  is  preparing 
to  hold  himself  to  anv  question,  until 
he  sees  it  as  it  is,  discerning  the 
essential  and  neglecting  the  negligible, 
and  until  further  he  arrives  at  a result 
that  is  not  approximate,  not  guess- 


work, but  correct,  and  capable  of 
explanation  and  of  successful  defense, 
— so  studied  mathematics  take  on  a 
living  interest  and  are  entitled  to  their 
honor  also  as  a humane  branch  of 
learning. 

If  these  things  are  true,  the  religious 
spirit  has  still  much  to  contribute  to 
American  education.  By  its  insistence 
on  personal  values  it  sends  us  to  the 
humanities,  those  studies  in  which 
alone  we  discover  and  maintain  our 
worth.  By  the  fires  it  kindles  for  the 
victory  of  the  spirit  over  all  things 
and  forces  it  sanctifies  our  industry 
and  research  in  every  department  of 
the  physical  realm.  In  the  face  of 
our  marvelous  triumphs  over  material 
forces,  it  warns  us  of  the  undubitable 
fact  that  man  can  not  live  by  bread 
alone,  no  matter  how  large  and  rich 
the  supply.  It  lifts  the  most  prosaic, 
earthy  science  into  the  higher  realm 
of  the  spirit.  It  bids  us  educate  men 
as  men,  and  not  as  clever  brutes. 

The  religious  spirit  is  something 
very  deep  and  subtle.  It  escapes  the 
confines  men  build  for  it,  and  in 
places  where  it  is  unauthorized, 
unrecognized,  perhaps  unbidden,  finds 
a more  congenial  home.  Religion 
has  not  lost  its  power  in  American 
education.  The  sincere  love  of  truth, 
whatever  the  truth  may  be,  is  more 
religious  than  the  resolution  to  pro- 
pogate  a fixed  and  determined  system 
of  truth.  The  free  service  of  all  the 
people,  without  sectarian  interest,  is 
more  godly  than  partisan  servk  e of 
a portion  of  the  people.  The  lifting 
of  the  life  of  a commonwealth  is 
assuredly  not  less  pious  than  endeavor 
to  provide  officers  for  a particular 
organization  in  that  commonwealth. 
We  are  delivered  in  these  times  from 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 


i5 


the  narrow,  ecclesiastical  zeal  of  the 
founders  of  American  education,  but 
the  deeper,  broader  religious  feeling, 
which  accompanied  that  zeal  and  sanc- 
tified it,  and  which  has  its  life  and 
its  assurance  of  permanence  in  our 
very  nature  as  men,  still  commands 
and  dictates  an  education  broad  in 
scope,  large  in  spirit,  and  directed  to 
the  cultivation  of  the  spirit  that  is  in 
man  and  the  life  which  he  shares  with 
God. 

THE  CONDITION  AND  NEED  OF  MIDDLE- 
BURY  COLLEGE. 

Middlebury  College,  one  of  the  old 
New  England  institutions  of  Puritan 
heritage,  the  twenty-sixth  American 
college  in  point  of  establishment,  was 
founded  in  the  fear  of  God.  While 
neither  religion  nor  Church  are  men- 
tioned in  our  charter,  the  religious 
spirit  of  the  founders  can  not  be 
questioned.  John  Harvard’s  gift  of 
half  his  estate  and  his  entire  library, 
the  founding  of  Yale  by  the  clergymen 
of  the  New  Haven  colony,  were  not 
more  distinctly  acts  of  religious  devo- 
tion than  the  planting  of  our  own 
Middlebury  by  the  pioneers  of  this 
village.  They  boast  at  Princeton  of 
their  origin  in  the  “ Log  College  of 
Neshaminy”,  which  Gilbert  Tennent 
built  with  his  own  hands,  a hut  twenty 
feet  square,  where  for  twenty  years  he 
instructed  boys  in  the  principles  of 
divinity  and  in  classical  learning.  We 
have  yet  greater  cause  for  glory  in  the 
old  Addison  County  Grammar  School, 
where  our  college  began  its  life,  a 
frame  building  of  fair  proportions, 
built  by  men  who  themselves  still  lived 
in  log  houses.  American  education  has 
no  more  heroic  story  than  the  record 
of  the  consecration  of  Painter,  and 


Chipman,  and  Storrs,  to  the  work  of 
establishing  a home  for  learning  in 
this  frontier  wilderness. 

The  charter  constituting  this  col- 
lege creates  it  a public  institution  of 
the  State  of  Vermont.  Under  their 
present  charters  the  higher  educa- 
tional institutions  of  Vermont  are 
sisters  on  absolute  equality.  This 
commonwealth  does  not  possess  a 
State  University,  in  the  sense  in  which 
the  Universities  of  Michigan,  Minne- 
sota, and  others  of  the  West,  belong 
to  their  respective  States.  Our  col- 
legiate work  is  no  less  the  work  of 
Vermont  in  higher  education  than 
similar  work  performed  in  the  sister 
institutions  of  our  commonwealth. 
The  State  brought  us  into  being,  and 
therefore  has  a right  to  expect  of  us 
useful  service  for  the  welfare  of  the 
people. 

That  service  it  is  our  bounden  duty 
to  render.  We  have  not  on  our  hands 
here  a private  experiment.  We  were 
constituted  for  the  benefit  of  the  Com- 
monwealth of  Vermont,  to  take  under 
our  intelligent  supervision  the  problem 
and  duty  of  rendering  to  those  who 
might  resort  to  us  such  intellectual, 
moral,  and  spiritual  training,  as  our 
judgment,  ever  alert  for  the  discovery 
of  new  methods  and  new  ideals,  finds 
to  be  best  calculated  to  make  useful 
citizens  and  worthy  men.  The  State 
of  Vermont  set  us  to  be  an  American 
College,  and  if  wre  can  thank  her  thus 
far  for  but  small  equipment,  we  may 
at  least  be  grateful  to  her  for  a large 
and  inspiring  work. 

Perhaps,  however,  Vermont  has  done 
for  us  more  than  we  realize.  I have 
seen  lists  of  benefactors  of  this  College 
which  no  man  with  any  heart  in  him 
could  read  without  deep  feeling. 


i6 


INAUGURATION  OF  PRESIDENT  THOMAS. 


Humble  farmers,  in  hard  and  trying 
times,  their  every  shilling  gained  by 
severest  labor,  while  little  children 
crowded  their  hearth-stones,  some  of 
whom  have  since  become  the  pillars 
of  this  nation,  subscribed  $100,  $300, 
$500,  and  sometimes  more,  that  this 
College,  the  pride  of  their  fathers,  the 
hope  of  their  growing  boys,  might 
continue  its  beneficent  life.  Any  man 
who  says  that  no  work  has  ever  been 
done  for  Middlebury  simply  does  not 
know.  By  the  bare  face  of  the  records 
President  Labaree  must  have  traveled 
literally  thousands  of  miles,  by  car- 
riage, up  and  down  this  State,  that  the 
boys  of  its  farms  might  have  a chance. 
He  used  to  like  to  tell  how  the  farmers 
of  this  county  would  speak  of  “ our 
college  ”. 

The  obligation  imposed  by  that 
heroism  is  not  to  be  cheaply  dis- 
charged. We  can  pay  the  debt  only 
when  we  put  our  utmost  strength  to 
keep  our  work  to  the  highest  standards 
of  American  education.  Our  one  tra- 
dition must  be  service.  If  any  cus- 
tom of  the  fathers  prevents  the  best 
work  of  to-day  for  the  men  of  to-day, 
it  must  follow  the  path  our  fathers 
chose  for  their  outgrown  encum- 
brances. We  must  know  no  prejudice 
but  the  prejudice  of  hard  wTork  to 
meet  the  problems  and  difficulties  that 
confront  us,  according  to  the  best 
light  which  any  one  any  where  has 
gained. 

Our  situation  geographically  has 
changed.  Modern  transportation  has 
made  us  entirely  accessible  to  the 
great  centers  of  population  in  the 
eastern  part  of  our  country,  and  we 
share  the  common  responsibility  and 
common  field  of  the  sisterhood  of 
eastern  Colleges.  I do  not  take  up 


this  work  with  the  idea  that  the  field 
of  Middlebury  College  is  Addison 
County,  or  Western  Vermont,  or  even 
the  Champlain  Valley.  The  field  of 
Middlebury  is  wherever  there  is  a 
young  man  or  young  woman  who 
needs  her  work.  I belong  in  any  city 
or  hamlet,  west  or  east,  where  the 
representative  of  any  College  belongs, 
for  the  towns  are  without  number, 
large  and  small,  far  as  well  as  near, 
where  there  are  boys  and  girls  who 
need  the  Middlebury  encouragement 
to  go  to  College,  and  whom  Middle- 
bury can  serve  with  higher  education 
more  economically,  more  efficiently 
for  them,  and  therefore  with  more 
help  and  less  handicap  for  their  after- 
life, than  any  other  institution  they 
would  be  likely  to  find. 

The  limitation  of  our  work  to  a 
narrow  field  would  be  criminal.  Our 
location  in  a frugal  agricultural  region 
favors  economy.  The  standards  of 
living  in  our  beautiful  village  are  quiet 
and  plain.  The  climate  is  one  of  the 
most  healthful  and  vigorous  in  the 
world.  The  advantage  of  four  years 
in  the  country  is  itself  worth  more  to 
many  a city  youth  than  the  cost  of  an 
education  here.  It  is  the  body  behind 
the  blow  that  tells.  The  limit  of  our 
growth  need  never  be  the  numbers 
whom  we  ought  to  reach  ; it  need  only 
be  our  ability  wisely  to  care  for  them. 
If  some  one  this  day  could  stir  ambi- 
tion in  a thousand  boys  in  the  stifling 
cities  to  prepare  for  our  Vermont 
College,  he  could  not  serve  them 
better. 

We  men  of  Middlebury  need  to  lift 
up  our  hearts,  that  we  may  see.  Our 
College  is  too  great  for  any  restricted 
sphere  of  influence.  If  we  extend  our 
service,  boys  by  the  hundred  will 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 


i7 


thank  God  that  we  enabled  them  to 
enlarge  their  lives  by  contact  with  the 
world’s  masters  of  truth  ; if  we  fail  of 
breadth  of  outlook,  we  shall  deny  the 
privileges  of  the  higher  life  to  thou- 
sands whom  we  ought  to  help. 

I assume  that  we  shall  continue  to 
have  in  our  hearts  the  dominant 
desire  in  the  hearts  of  our  fathers, 
to  have  here  a College  where  the 
youth  of  humblest  homes  are  on  an 
absolute  equality  with  those  whom 
fortune  has  more  highly  favored. 
When  Middlebury  forgets  the  boy  who 
has  a hard  time  to  get  a start,  she  will 
have  forgotten  her  glory.  I would 
not  call  her  the  “poor  man’s  College” 
for  there  are  many  sensible  folk — 
thank  God — who  still  desire  to  fortify 
their  children  by  simple  living  in  their 
early  days.  Plain  standards  of  life, 
with  strict  democracy,  will  not  keep 
from  our  halls  the  scions  of  the  most 
privileged  American  homes,  at  least 
those  of  them  that  are  worth  edu- 
cating. Simple  ways  and  democratic 
principles,  coupled  with  high  scholar- 
ship, thorough  training,  and  nobility 
of  ideal,  will  rather  attract  them.  No 
American  College  should  set  itself  to 
serve  any  particular  social  class,  either 
poor  or  rich.  But  may  God  forbid 
that  we  should  ever  cease  to  search  for 
the  hesitant,  backward  boy,  of  the 
home  that  knows  severest  hardship, 
that  we  may  establish  him  an  equal  in 
the  company  of  those  who  seek  for 
truth  and  self-mastery  under  the 
guidance  of  the  world’s  greatest  spirits. 
I invoke  the  independent  spirit  of 
Vermont  to  keep  us  from  silly  aping  of 
the  worser  features  of  collegiate  life 
elsewhere,  and  to  hold  us  true  to  our 
Puritan  democracy,  remembering  our 
own  timid,  clumsy  knock  at  Alma 


Mater’s  gate,  and  the  sweetness  of 
hope  when  it  dawned  on  our  own 
early  life. 

The  need  of  work  like  this  is  im- 
measurably great.  The  truly  critical 
period  of  American  history  has  not 
yet  come.  We  have  been  exploiting 
a continent,  the  broadest  and  richest 
ever  allotted  to  any  people.  A horde  of 
plunderers,  we  have  swept  down  upon 
its  treasures,  consuming  ruthlessly  its 
forests,  impoverishing  its  soil,  strewing 
its  meadows  to  the  seas,  and  burning 
its  treasured  mountains  as  our  bar- 
barian forefathers  burned  the  hills  of 
Rome.  As  robbers  we  have  succeeded 
tremendously.  That  has  been  hitherto 
our  success.  We  have  had  but  one 
Emerson.  The  great  Americans  have 
been  Edison,  Morse,  Fulton,  and  their 
like,  together  with  the  masters  of 
business  who  have  heaped  up  the 
largest  fortunes  the  world  has  known. 
Were  all  America  to  be  blotted  out, 
past  and  present,  the  loss  to  the  world 
of  culture,  thought,  and  beauty,  would 
not  equal  the  loss  of  one  small  year  of 
Athens,  or  of  one  man  of  a dozen  that 
might  be  named  who  lived  their 
life  with  God  in  the  hills  of  little 
Judaea. 

The  time  is  surely  coming  when  we 
can  live  no  more  by  plunder,  but  must 
set  ourselves  to  build  and  to  plant,  and 
to  renew  our  life  from  within.  That 
time  came  long  since  to  some  of  the 
lands  beyond  the  sea.  When  the  Em- 
pire of  Prussia  was  all  battered  down 
by  the  onslaughts  of  Napoleon,  when 
12,000  Germans  lay  dead  on  the  battle- 
field of  Jena  and  15,000  were  taken 
prisoners,  in  the  midst  of  deepest 
humiliation  the  Prussians  founded  the 
University  of  Berlin,  convinced  that 
the  secret  of  national  renewal  lay  in 


i8 


INAUGURATION  OF  PRESIDENT  THOMAS. 


superior  intelligence  supported  by 
education,  that  if  the  fatherland  were 
to  rise  from  her  degradation  it  must 
be  by  the  force  of  men  who  know  and 
men  who  think. 

The  day  of  our  reckoning  will  also 
surely  come.  We  can  not  much  longer 
grow  rich  by  devastation,  nor  even 
live  by  it.  America’s  wealth  must 
come  from  her  men,  and  in  the 
making  of  men  you  must  begin  at  the 
top  and  work  down.  It  is  the  leader 
who  is  all  important,  and  with  one 
leader  a whole  countryside  blooms 
fresh  in  vigorous  life. 

In  the  making  ‘of  leaders  the  small 
community  is  of  highest  importance. 
There  are  strange,  personal  currents 
where  masses  throng  together,  draw- 
ing individuals  irresistibly  into  the 
same  course  of  life  and  thought. 
Ideas  flow  from  mind  to  mind ; 
beliefs  from  soul  to  soul ; feelings 
from  heart  to  heart.  The  vast  city 
concourse,  plebeian  or  proletariat,  is 
monotonous,  stupidly  similar,  and 
tame.  In  small  communities  you  find 
individuality  and  independence.  The 
mountains,  where  men  live  in  hamlets, 
have  ever  been  lovers  of  freedom. 
Great  men  have  not  risen  from  the 
hordes  of  Persia,  Babylonia,  or  the 
valley  of  the  Nile,  where  mathemati- 
cally the  chances  were  so  great,  but 
from  little  Greece,  tiny  Palestine,  and 
sequestered  England,  lands  all  sepa- 
rated into  isolated  communities  by 
mountain  ranges  or  indenting  seas. 
The  greater  the  aggregate,  the  less  the 
power  and  intensity  in  the  individual 
man.  If  you  would  make  a master, 
remove  him  from  the  confusing,  stifling 
crush  of  the  masses  who  are  too  busy 
to  think.  The  city  University  has  its 
justification,  but  the  making  of  men 


of  might  will  remain  the  honor  of  the 
country  College. 

For  the  fulfilment  of  this  high  call- 
ing our  resources  must  be  largely 
increased.  Our  productive  endow- 
ment is  but  $420,000,  and  our 
entire  income  but  little  more  than 
$28,000  a year.  We  have  less  than 
a third  the  endowment  of  Williams, 
less  than  a fourth  that  of  Amherst,  less 
than  a fifth  that  of  Dartmouth.  Col- 
leges with  five  times  our  income  are 
caring  for  scarcely  more  than  twice 
our  number  of  students.  We  are  doing 
our  educational  work  at  a cost  to  the 
college  of  less  than  $150  a year  for 
each  student.  I dare  to  boast  that 
there  is  not  a College  in  New  England 
where  funds  count  for  more,  dollar  for 
dollar,  in  educational  result. 

In  scholarships  we  are  comfortably 
well-to-do,  but  in  Prof essorships  we  are 
distressingly  poor.  Only  one  chair  is 
fully  endowed.  We  have  but  $76,000 
specifically  for  Professorships,  a sum 
barely  sufficient  to  sustain  two  men. 
Our  first  and  most  immediate  need  is 
added  endowment  for  increase  of  the 
teaching  force.  We  should  have  at 
once  $100,000  for  this  purpose.  We 
could  then  do  two  things.  First, 
we  could  increase  the  efficiency  of  our 
Professors  by  narrowing  their  field. 
It  is  not  extravagant  to  call  that  con- 
secration heroic  in  which  men  of  high 
scholarship  and  personal  worth  have 
continued  year  after  year  doing  the 
work  of  our  College,  striving  to  main- 
tain their  scholarly  position  in  their 
chosen  field,  while  enforced  to  cover 
too  many  subjects.  I am  not  moved 
so  much  by  multiplied  hours  of  service ; 
a maker  of  men  ought  to  work  hard ; 
bnt  he  ought  to  be  allowed  to  work  in 
his  own  calling,  and  to  keep  himself 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 


l9 


at  his  best  in  that  field  to  which  he 
has  given  his  life.  Men  have  given 
their  lives  for  Middlebury.  William 
Wells  Eaton  gave  his  life  for  her. 
Men  who  are  now  here,  and  others 
who  will  come  after  them,  will  not 
refuse  the  same  sacrifice,  but  we 
should  at  least  allow  them  the  joy  of 
their  own  branch  of  learning,  and  what- 
ever compensations  they  may  derive 
from  practice  in  its  higher  reaches. 

Secondly,  with  more  men  we  could 
broaden  our  course,  and  meet  the 
unquestioned  demand  of  the  times 
for  a Scientific  Course,  without  re- 
quired Latin.  We  are  to-day  the  most 
strictly  classical  College  in  New  Eng- 
land. We  are  the  only  one  in  which 
Latin  is  required  for  more  than  one  year, 
and  one  of  four  which  it  is  impossible 
to  enter,  in  any  course,  without  Latin. 
We  should  not  turn  this  College  into  a 
technical  school;  we  need  not  try  to 
make  ourselves  a University ; but  we 
should  have  a College  that  makes  men 
by  whatever  studies  the  men  that  are 
needed  in  these  times  can  best  be 
made.  The  boy  is  not  made  for  the 
College,  but  the  College  should  be 
made  for  the  boy.  It  is  no  shame 
to  ask  the  student  what  he  wants ; but 
it  is  a shame,  within  reasonable  limits, 
not  to  give  it  to  him.  Unquestion- 
ably the  scholar,  the  man  of  highest 
culture,  the  student  skilled  in  philoso- 
phy, literature,  or  historical  research, 
must  have  Greek  as  well  as  Latin. 
Of  the  two  the  Greek  is  the  more 
valuable,  for  it  enshrines  a nobler 
literature  and  the  soul  of  a nobler 
people.  A small  College,  training 
every  student  in  Greek  as  well  as 
Latin,  specializing  in  literature,  his- 
tory, and  philosophy,  would  have 
indeed  a high  calling.  But  it  should 


first  be  secure  of  a large  endowment, 
since  the  support  of  the  classics  can 
not  to-day  be  made  a popular  appeal ; 
and  should  also  resign  itself  to  the 
care  of  a very  small  number  of  stu- 
dents, deliberately  sending  elsewhere 
those  whom  God  never  made  for 
linguistic  skill.  We  have  not  the 
endowment,  and  with  good  conscience 
we  have  not  the  privilege  of  serving 
only  a certain  type  of  mind.  Students 
do  not  seek  a College  because  they 
feel  that  they  are  peculiarly  gifted  for 
its  particular  work,  but  because  of  per- 
sonal influence,  and,  in  our  own  case, 
often  for  reasons  of  location  and 
economy.  Therefore  we  must  not 
rest  content  until  there  is  work  here 
that  will  interest  and  enthuse  students 
of  varied  types  of  mind,  not  merely 
the  classical  and  the  literary,  but  also 
the  practical  and  the  scientific.  We 
must  not  ease  our  conscience  until 
every  boy  who  has  pursued  in  good 
faith  and  industry  four  years  of  study 
in  a good  secondary  school  is  entitled 
to  continue  his  work  with  us,  on  the 
same  terms  on  which  he  might  enter 
other  colleges  of  equal  rank.  A 
preparation  that  is  good  enough  for 
the  first  Universities  of  America  ought 
to  be  good  enough  for  us. 

We  can  not  make  this  advance  with- 
out large  increase  of  endowment.  We 
need  move  Professors  in  Modern  Lan- 
guages, in  History  and  Political  Sci- 
ence, and  in  the  Natural  and  Physical 
Sciences.  With  $100,000  more  we 
could  double  our  efficiency,  increasing 
both  the  number  of  students,  particu- 
larly of  men,  and  the  income  from 
tuition.  I am  convinced  that  this  is 
the  first  need  of  our  College  to-day. 

Owing  to  the  generosity  of  Mr.  Ezra 
J.  Warner,  we  have  laboratories  in  the 


20 


INAUGURATION  OF  PRESIDENT  THOMAS . 


natural  sciences  scarcely  surpassed  by 
those  of  any  American  small  College. 
But  no  science  remains  stationary ; 
continual  additions  of  apparatus  are 
needed  for  the  best  results.  We  must 
not  send  students  out  familiar  only 
with  the  methods  of  past  decades,  and 
in  the  natural  sciences  it  costs  to 
keep  up-to-date.  We  should  have 
special  endowment  for  the  perpetual 
care  of  our  scientific  laboratories. 

Our  beautiful  Library,  bearing  a 
name  no  Middlebury  man  can  too 
greatly  honor,  is  inadequately  sus- 
tained out  of  the  general  funds  of  the 
College.  The  care  of  books,  and  the 
guidance  of  students  in  the  use  of 
books,  is  in  our  time  becoming  a pro- 
fession. A collection  of  books  is  not 
a library  in  the  modern  sense ; it  does 
not  become  a library  until  it  is  scien- 
tifically arranged,  classified,  and  cata- 
logued, and  there  is  constantly  at  the 
service  of  the  reader  expert  counsel 
and  direction  in  any  branch  of  investi- 
gation. The  student  should  be  able 
to  put  his  hands  promptly  upon  every 
item  in  every  book  on  the  shelves  that 
bears  in  any  way  upon  the  topic  he  is 
studying.  He  should  be  encouraged 
to  compare  authority  with  authority, 
taught  how  to  run  down  errors  to  their 
source,  delivered  from  the  superstition 
that  all  is  gospel  that  appears  in  print, 
trained  in  methods  of  investigation 
that  will  stand  him  in  good  stead  in 
any  branch  of  future  study,  and  im- 
pressed with  that  first  requisite  of  an 
educated  man, — appreciation  of  the 
proper  connotation  of  the  words,  I 
know.  We  should  have  not  less  than 
$3,000  a year  for  library  purposes,  and 
until  endowment  for  that  purpose  is 
had,  the  most  essential  part  of  our 
equipment  will  rest  insecure. 


This  Commencement  is  the  twenty- 
fifth  anniversary  of  the  opening  of 
Middlebury  College  to  women.  When 
in  1883  the  Corporation  voted  that 
the  privileges  of  the  College  should 
be  open  to  women  on  the  same  terms 
as  to  men,  there  was  doubtless  con- 
templated only  the  sharing  of  class- 
room privileges  by  a few  women  from 
the  vicinity,  whose  presence  would 
not  complicate  college  problems,  nor 
increase  appreciably  the  labors  of 
instruction.  We  are  now  ten  years 
beyond  that  situation.  While  there 
are  to-day  a third  more  men  than 
women,  there  are  also  twice  as  many 
women  alone  as  there  were  men  in 
College  when  women  were  admitted. 
We  have  a Women’s  College  larger 
than  the  entire  Middlebury  when  the 
first  woman  came.  Women  are  here 
in  force  sufficient  to  make  separate 
classes  necessary  in  the  non-elective 
courses.  In  some  departments  an 
entire  duplication  of  work  is  a neces- 
sity. With  inadequate  endowment  for 
a College  for  men,  we  are  to-day 
sustaining  a College  for  women  also. 

During  these  twenty-five  years  we 
have  received  but  $2,000  specifically 
for  the  education  of  girls.  No  monies 
have  been  received  for  the  general  work 
of  the  College  because  of  the  presence 
of  women  as  students.  The  position 
might  therefore  be  taken  that  since 
the  needs  of  the  men  over-tax  our 
resources,  the  action  of  1883  should  be 
retracted  and  the  doors  closed  to 
women.  I have  looked  longingly  and 
affectionately  at  every  argument  tend- 
ing in  that  direction.  No  man  of 
common-sense  could  do  other  than 
hesitate  to  undertake  the  administra- 
tion of  two  Colleges  with  half  the 
endowment  of  one.  But  consider  the 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 


situation.  We  are  just  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  movement  for  the  higher 
education  of  women.  There  will  be 
more  women’s  Colleges,  larger  and 
better  ones,  more  specifically  adapted 
to  their  work.  In  all  northern  New 
England  and  New  York  there  is  no 
College  distinctly  for  women.  The 
excellent  institutions  for  women  to  the 
south  are  already  insufficient  for  those 
who  seek  them.  Expenses  there  are 
necessarily  large.  The  daughters  of 
the  frugal  homes  of  New  England  can 
no  longer  attend  the  institutions  spe- 
cifically founded  for  them.  We  can 
not  shut  our  doors  in  the  face  of  such 
need  and  opportunity.  We  have  gone 
too  far  to  go  back.  We  must  go  on  to 
build  up  a College  for  women,  suitable 
to  the  needs  of  women,  with  no  fear 
lest  it  become  too  prosperous,  but  at 
the  same  time  strengthening  and 
broadening  our  work  for  men,  and 
keeping  our  rank  and  station  as  a 
College  for  men,  not  by  keeping  the 
women  down  or  out,  but  by  bringing 
the  men’s  work  up.  A good  woman’s 
College,  under  the  liberal  charter  of 
1902,  will  not  injure  us,  nor  detract 
from  our  time-honored  position ; a 
poor  one,  treated  with  scant  jus- 
tice, will  forbid  us  always  that  self- 
respect  with  which  alone  we  can  con- 
tinue our  way  to  success. 

The  first  step  must  be  a building. 
We  would  all  like  to  see  a beautiful 
residence  hall  for  women,  near  the 
campus,  not  less  attractive  than  other 
recent  buildings  of  the  College,  costing 
perhaps  $50,000,  serving  as  a center 
for  the  social  life  of  all  the  girls  of  the 
College.  Such  a building  is  to-day 
within  our  grasp,  and  with  it  a consid- 
erable increase  of  endowment.  I hold 
in  my  hand  letters  from  one  of  the 


2 r 


most  generous  benefactors  of  Ameri- 
can education,  Dr.  D.  K.  Pearsons  of 
Chicago.  These  letters  are  so  charac- 
teristic and  of  such  unique  interest 
that  I wish  to  read  them  just  as  they 
came  to  me.  In  reply  to  my  appeal 
for  $50,000  for  a Woman’s  Building, 
Dr.  Pearsons  wrote  on  May  6 : 

“ President  Thomas  : How  much 
endowment  have  you?  How  many 
teachers?  How  much  do  you  spend 
yearly?  How  long  have  you  had 
co-education  ? 

Are  you  certain  that  the  College  is 
needed  ? Are  you  certain  that  it  can 
live?  I have  never  heard  much  about 
the  College.  What  church  controls 
the  College? 

Truly, 

D.  K.  Pearsons. 

Fifty  thousand  dollars  is  not  enough. 
Can  you  raise  $100,000  in  Vermont 
and  other  places?  Are  you  a good 
beggar?  It  takes  a smart  man  to  get 
money.  Vermont  University  is  near 
you.  Take  a good  look  all  around 
you.  Use  good  judgment.” 

I replied  at  once  to  Dr.  Pearsons’ 
inquiries,  and  in  turn  received  the 
following,  under  date  of  May  1 2 : 

“Dr.  Thomas  : You  need  $100,000 
to  do  the  work  right.  I will  give  you 
$25,000  when  you  raise  $75,000.  If 
you  can  get  along  with  less,  I will  give 
you  $1  for  every  $3  you  raise.  I have 
only  one  style  of  doing  business. 

Truly, 

D.  K.  Pearsons.” 

This  is  certainly  a noble  and  gener- 
ous offer.  You  will  note  that  it  is  not 
hampered  by  restrictions.  All  above 
the  bare  cost  of  the  building  will 
strengthen  the  general  work  of  the 


22 


INAUGURATION  OF  PRESIDENT  THOMAS. 


College,  for  men  as  well  as  for  women. 
The  next  step  ahead  for  Middlebury  is 
to  meet  Dr.  Pearsons’  conditions,  and 
that  promptly. 

We  do  well  to  be  proud  of  Dr. 
Pearsons’  endorsement,  and  most 
hopeful  because  of  it  also.  He  has 
not  a record  of  giving  to  dying  causes. 
He  has  received  not  a particle  of 
personal  benefit  from  Middlebury,  and 
if  he  can  be  thus  generous,  certainly 
we,  who  owe  all  that  we  have  and  are 
to  the  start  this  College  gave  us, 
should  rise  in  enthusiastic  self-sacrifice, 
and  send  for  his  $25,000  so  promptly 
that  he  will  ask  how  best  he  can  give 
us  some  more. 

I am  aware  that  I am  taking  up  a 
great  work,  of  large  and  persistent 
difficulty,  weighted  with  consequences 
utterly  beyond  the  vision  of  the  keen- 
est. Mistakes  are  inevitable,  and  I 
invoke  your  charity.  I promise  you 
my  best,  and  I ask  you  for  whatever 
help  you  think  you  ought  to  give  me. 
I am  certain  that  Middlebury  College 
is  needed,  certain  that  she  has  a work, 
distinctive  and  separate,  that  can  not 
be  done  as  well  by  any  other  institu- 
tion. We  have  an  individuality  of  our 
own,  which  we  must  preserve,  but 
must  also  strengthen.  Our  entire 
endowment  and  our  entire  plant,  taken 
together  and  added  to  the  resources 
of  any  other  College  you  might  name, 
would  not  begin  to  do  the  educational 
work  it  is  doing  to-day  right  here. 
Our  College  is  as  fixed  in  the  green 
hills  as  the  archaean  rock  of  Camel’s 
Hump  and  Killington,  being  anchored 
by  a quarter  of  a million  of  stone 
and  marble  buildings,  and  by  the 
enthusiastic  love  and  loyalty  of  hun- 
dreds of  friends,  mostly  poor,  but  all 
rich  in  courage. 


The  Alumni  of  Middlebury  do  well 
to  be  grateful  to  her,  for  she  has  been 
most  generous  with  them.  This  village 
and  this  country-side  have  reason  to 
be  proud  of  their  College.  Because  of 
her,  strong  men  from  far  and  near 
turn  their  hearts  hitherward  in  grate- 
ful interest.  No  business  here  con- 
ducted is  of  such  direct  benefit  to  the 
community,  financially  or  otherwise. 
I would  that  every  humblest  citizen  of 
this  town  might  learn  to  speak  with 
pride  of  “our  College”.  We  will 
return  ten  times  over  all  that  we 
receive  from  tax  exemptions  in  this 
village,  and  from  benefices  of  the 
State,  that  every  last  Vermonter,  proud 
of  his  mountain  State,  may  remember 
in  his  pride  the  little  College  that  sets 
herself  to  the  making  of  manhood, 
clean  as  Vermont’s  marble,  and  strong 
as  her  granite.  The  interests  which 
appeal  to-day  to  men  of  affairs  are 
many  and  large.  Philanthropies  are 
multiplied  and  the  obligations  of  life 
are  increased  on  every  side.  The  sick 
and  the  poor,  the  blind  and  the  lame, 
move  the  dullest  to  pity.  The  interests 
of  religion,  with  continents  open  to  the 
gospel,  with  myriads  strange  to  the 
piety  of  our  fathers  pouring  in  upon 
us,  demand  largest  sacrifice.  Never- 
theless I venture  to  declare  the  rightful 
claim  of  education  upon  the  bounty  of 
those  who  have  insight  to  see  its  worth. 
Only  the  brute  turns  aside  from  the 
helpless  child,  freezing  in  the  cold. 
The  most  thoughtless  are  moved  by 
the  cripple’s  pitiable  plea.  The  pas- 
sion of  religious  faith  wakens  millions 
to  her  summons.  But  the  boy  of  the 
frugal  home,  who  stirs  at  ambition’s 
call,  who  feels  within  him  impulse  to 
prepare  for  the  world’s  large  service, 
waits  with  his  more  pitiable  need  until 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 


23 


we  who  have  known  like  stirring  in 
the  days  now  far  away,  come  close  to 
him  to  tell  him  that  we  understand. 
You  can  feed  the  hungry  with  bread 
at  five  cents  a loaf.  You  can  care  for 
orphans  at  a few  pennies  a day.  But 
the  hunger  of  the  mind,  the  deep 
hunger  of  the  soul  that  presses  out  into 
the  mysteries  of  life — that  you  can 
feed  only  with  libraries,  and  with 
laboratories,  and  above  all  with  men, 
not  cheap  men  either,  masterly  men 
sufficient  to  the  making  of  masters. 
These  things  cost,  but  they  are  worth 
all  they  cost.  It  is  terrible  to  want 
bread  ; but  it  is  more  terrible  to  want 
knowledge,  to  want  opportunity,  to 
want  a grip  somewhere  on  the  world’s 
worthy  work,  and  not  to  know  just 
how  to  get  it. 

The  cripple  on  the  street  corner  is  a 
pitiable  sight,  but  give  me  the  College 


I want  and  I will  find  in  the  hills  here 
somewhere  a man  who  will  help  a 
hundred  cripples.  A city  laid  waste 
by  floods  calls  for  deepest  sympathy ; 
but  with  facilities  almost  at  our  doors 
we  might  train  men  who  would  plant 
forests  to  stay  a thousand  floods.  The 
world’s  one  need  is  men,  and  the 
world’s  greatest  need  is  men  who  can 
lead ; I am  sure  that  in  our  College 
we  can  make  them  still. 

I have  before  me  the  thrilling  vision 
of  the  men  of  this  little  College,  united 
in  enthusiastic  loyalty,  enlisted  as  men 
who  serve  their  country  and  their  God, 
enlarging  the  work  of  our  College 
until  in  the  homes  of  the  humble  near 
and  far  the  name  of  Middlebury  shall 
speak  hope  and  outlook  for  those 
who  would  prepare  themselves  largely 
to  live,  and  by  large  lives  bless  the 
world. 


24 


INAUGURATION  OF  PRESIDENT  THOMAS . 


THE  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  OTHER  COLLEGES  AND  EDUCATIONAL 

INSTITUTIONS 

IN  ATTENDANCE  UPON  THE  INAUGURATION. 


Harvard  University:  John  Eliot  Wolff,  Professor  of  Petrography  and  Mineralogy. 

Yale  University:  George  Henry  Perkins,  Class  of  1867.  Professor  of  Natural 
History  in  the  University  of  Vermont. 

Columbia  University:  James  Chidester  Egbert,  Professor  of  Latin. 

Brown  University:  Albert  Davis  Mead,  Professor  of  Comparative  Anatomy. 
Dartmouth  College:  William  Thayer  Smith,  Dean  of  the  Medical  School. 
Williams  College:  Asa  Henry  Morton,  Professor  of  the  Romance  Languages. 

The  University  of  Vermont:  Robert  Roberts,  Class  of  1869. 

Amherst  College:  John  Franklin  Genung,  Professor  of  Rhetoric. 

Haverford  College:  Don  E.  Barrett,  Professor  of  Economics. 

Oberlin  College:  William  H.  Spence,  Class  of  1899. 

Hartford  Theological  Seminary:  Lewis  B.  Paton,  Professor  of  Old  Testament 
Literature. 

Mount  Holyoke  College:  Florence  Purington,  Dean. 

Tufts  College:  Charles  H.  Darling,  Class  of  1884. 

Vassar  College:  Annie  C.  Taylor,  Class  of  1896. 

Bates  College:  Fritz  Walter  Baldwin,  Trustee. 

Cornell  University:  Ernest  Albee,  Professor  of  Philosophy. 

Johns  Hopkins  University:  Edward  H.  Griffin,  Professor  of  the  History  of 
Philosophy. 


GREETINGS  FROM  OTHER  COLLEGES. 


25 


GREETINGS  FROM  OTHER  COLLEGES. 


At  one  o’clock  the  Corporation 
Luncheon  was  served  in  the  Town 
Hall,  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty 
being  seated  at  the  tables.  At  its 
close  President  Brainerd  called  the 
assembly  to  order  and  gracefully  trans- 
ferred to  President  Thomas  the  duties 
of  toastmaster.  The  speakers  of  the 
afternoon  were  Governor  Proctor  and 
the  representatives  of  the  various  in- 
stitutions of  learning  that  had  partici- 
pated in  the  inauguration  exercises  of 
the  morning.  A brief  summary  of 
the  utterances  is  all  that  is  here 
presented. 

GOVERNOR  PROCTOR. 

Governor  Proctor  dwelt  on  the 
genuine  good  of  recalling  college  days 
— the  days  of  true  democracy,  under 
whose  influence  men  gather  and  live 
in  harmony ; the  days  when  freedom 
is  greatest  and  pleasure  keenest,  and 
when  a man  stands  for  what  he  really 
is.  We,  he  said,  who  have  come 
under  that  influence  have  not  finished 
our  course ; it  is  a continuous  course 
of  never-ending  partnership.  Let  us 
acknowledge  our  debt  of  gratitude, 
and  to-day,  as  Middlebury  is  em- 
barking under  a new  leadership,  with 
a future  brighter  than  ever  before, 
let  every  Middlebury  man  live  for  a 
better  and  fuller  college  service. 

PROFESSOR  EGBERT. 

Professor  Egbert,  speaking  first  as  a 
friend  of  Dr.  Thomas,  bore  witness  to 
his  devoted  scholarship,  to  his  breadth 


as  a man,  and  above  all  to  his  interest 
in  humanity.  I do  not  know,  he  said, 
of  a more  ideal  man  for  President  of  a 
college  ; and  he  quoted,  as  fulfilled  in 
the  new  incumbent,  certain  words  of 
Secretary  Taft  regarding  the  needed 
qualifications  for  another  Presidency. 
As  a representative  of  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, Professor  Egbert  discussed  the 
opportunities  of  an  institution  like 
Middlebury.  The  country  college,  he 
declared,  conserves  education  in  its 
best  sense ; to  such  colleges  we  look 
for  the  preservation  of  education  for 
education’s  sake.  I congratulate  you, 
he  said  in  closing,  on  your  new 
President,  and  I congratulate  him, 
because  I deem  it  a great  honor  for  a 
man  to  be  President  of  his  Alma 
Mater. 

PROFESSOR  WOLFF. 

Professor  Wolff  brought  the  official 
greetings  of  Harvard  and  a personal 
greeting  from  President  Eliot  to  Presi- 
dent Brainerd  and  President  Thomas. 
A particular  reason  for  affectionate 
relations  between  Middlebury  and 
Harvard  lay  in  the  fact  that  Middle- 
bury’s  third  President,  Joshua  Bates, 
1818-1839,  graduated  from  Harvard 
in  1800,  the  year  of  Middlebury’s 
founding.  President  Bates’s  term  of 
office  had  been  surpassed  in  length 
only  twice  in  the  history  of  the 
College,  once  by  that  of  President 
Brainerd,  and  the  speaker  wished  for 
President  Thomas  a service  as  long, 
or  longer,  and  as  successful. 


26 


INAUGURATION  OF  PRESIDENT  THOMAS. 


PROFESSOR  PERKINS. 

Professor  Perkins  spoke  in  a double 
capacity,  having  brought  to  Middle- 
bury  maternal  greetings  from  Yale 
and  the  cordial  good-wishes  of  his 
colleagues  in  the  Faculty  of  the 
University  of  Vermont.  He  expressed 
the  wish  that  those  colleagues  might 
have  heard  the  forceful,  practical 
address  of  the  morning,  and  the 
wonder  that  a man  of  theological 
training  could  know  so  much  as  to  the 
educational  problems  of  the  day.  His 
desire  was  that  Middlebury  and  the 
University  might  work  together  as 
sister  institutions  for  nobler  manhood 
and  truer  life  in  Vermont. 

DEAN  SMITH. 

Doctor  Smith,  pursuing  the  genea- 
logical suggestions  of  previous  speakers, 
found  Dartmouth  also  a child  of  Yale 
through  Eleazar  Wheelock,  and  Mid- 
dlebury and  Dartmouth  in  a true 
sense  sisters.  Boston,  he  said,  had 
been  characterized  as  not  a city  but  a 
state  of  mind ; if  Middlebury  is  the 
state  of  mind  set  forth  in  the  address 
of  the  morning,  the  College  is  ab- 
solutely sure  of  success. 

DEAN  PURINGTON. 

Dean  Purington,  bringing  the  greet- 
ings of  Mount  Holyoke,  expressed 
her  belief  in  the  college  that  has  for 
its  aim  the  giving  of  the  best  educa- 
tion, intellectual,  moral,  spiritual,  and 
her  confidence  that  the  very  best  is  in 
store  for  Middlebury. 

PROFESSOR  GRIFFIN. 

Dean  Griffin  spoke  of  the  high 
regard  for  Middlebury  prevailing  at 
Johns  Hopkins,  because  of  the  well- 
trained  students  she  has  sent  there 
from  time  to  time  to  engage  in 


graduate  work.  Believing  fully  in  the 
function  of  the  small  college,  he 
nevertheless  regretted  that  various 
influences  are  forcing  a certain  kind 
of  uniformity  and  expressed  the  hope 
that  Middlebury  will  cherish  its  in- 
dividual features,  to  the  end  that  our 
colleges  may  not  be  made  all  alike. 

PROFESSOR  GENUNG. 

Professor  Genung  congratulated 
alumni  and  students  on  a leader  with 
such  clear  ideas  as  to  the  situation 
and  its  duties.  He  enlarged  on  the 
good,  old-fashioned  Scripture  ex- 
pression as  to  seeing  eye  to  eye.  hold- 
ing it  peculiarly  true  of  an  assembly 
like  the  one  before  him,  with  its  com- 
mon' language,  common  memories, 
and  common  aims. 

PROFESSOR  MORTON. 

Professor  Morton  proved  that  Wil- 
liams also  is  a child  of  Yale  and  that 
Amherst  is  in  consequence  a grand- 
daughter. Williams,  Dartmouth,  and 
Middlebury,  then,  with  their  common 
inclination  to  the  classics,  might  well  be 
called  the  three  graces.  As  a teacher 
of  romance,  he  was  interested  in  what 
had  been  said  about  the  ladies — in- 
terested, and  somewhat  alarmed.  The 
ladies  will  do  away  with  us  ; Goethe 
has  spoken  of  the  eternal  feminine, 
but  has  not  a word  to  say  of  the 
eternal  masculine.  But  the  men  of 
Middlebury  can  hardly  fail  of  success  ; 
they  cannot  fail  so  long  as  human 
nature,  American  human  nature,  Chris- 
tian American  human  nature  remains 
fundamentally  what  it  is. 

MRS  TAYLOR. 

Mrs.  Taylor,  introduced  by  Presi- 
dent Thomas  as  one  who  might  be 
able  to  tell  something  about  the  ro- 


GREETINGS  FROM  OTHER  COLLEGES . 


mance  referred  to  by  Professor  Morton, 
brought  the  greetings  of  the  President 
and  Faculty  of  Vassar.  As  to  romance 
she  felt  that  others  possibly  knew  as 
much  about  it  as  she ; at  any  rate,  she 
was  not  going  to  tell  what  she  knew. 

PROFESSOR  PATON. 

Professor  Paton,  as  a representa- 
tive of  Hartford  Theological  Seminary, 
spoke  of  the  relation  of  the  seminaries 
and  the  colleges,  and  the  need  of  an 
educated  ministry.  The  smaller  col- 
leges are  in  closer  touch  with  the  sem- 
inaries, perhaps  because  in  them  there 
is  more  of  the  ideal  life  led.  In 
institutions,  too,  where  the  technical 
has  not  crowded  out  the  broad  ideal 
of  culture,  the  seminaries  get  the  best 
men  for  the  ministry ; and  under  the 
ideals  outlined  by  President  Thomas 
there  should  be  an  increasing  stream 
of  Middlebury  men  going  out  from  the 
college  to  the  seminary. 

PROFESSOR  ALBEE. 

Professor  Albee,  of  Cornell,  after  a 
few  words  of  personal  reminiscence, 
discussed  certain  relations  of  the  college 
and  the  university,  declaring  that  the 
old  jealousy  between  them  is  a thing  of 
the  past,  and  that  the  universities 
have  still  a good  deal  to  learn  from 
the  colleges  if  they  would  retain  a 
consistent,  harmonious,  and  effective 
course  of  undergraduate  work. 

PROFESSOR  BARRETT. 

Professor  Barrett  expressed  his 
pleasure  at  being  able  to  bring  from 
Haverford  the  greetings  of  President 
Sharpless  and  to  carry  away  from  a 
remarkable  function  the  spirit  breathed 
in  all  the  exercises  of  the  day. 

MR.  ROBERTS. 

Mr.  Roberts,  speaking  for  the  Cor- 


27 


poration  of  the  University  of  Vermont, 
said  that  no  educational  institution  in 
Vermont  can  afford  to  go  without 
giving  its  good-will  to  every  other 
institution  in  the  Commonwealth  and 
receiving  its  good-will  in  return.  This 
State,  he  said,  is  changing  in  its 
character — the  fact  might  as  well  be 
recognized — but  our  educational  in- 
stitutions are  not  declining.  They  are 
hard  up,  but  they  are  not  so  miserably 
hard  up  as  the  richer  institutions.  In 
concluding,  he  spoke  of  the  strong 
types  of  men  exemplified  in  the  early 
Middlebury  graduates,  notably  in  men 
like  his  father,  Daniel  Roberts,  and 
Truman  M.  Post. 

PROFESSOR  MEAD. 

Professor  Mead,  while  bringing  the 
good-wishes  of  Brown  University, 
spoke  chiefly  and  interestingly  as  a 
Middlebury  alumnus  and  classmate  of 
President  Thomas. 

DOCTOR  BALDWIN. 

Doctor  Baldwin,  representing  Bates 
College,  said  that  he  was  present  to 
testify  his  love  for  the  new  President 
and  his  great  respect  for  the  institu- 
tion over  which  he  is  to  preside,  j 
regret,  said  he,  that  Doctor  Thomas 
is  no  longer  to  be  with  us  at  East 
Orange,  but  I rejoice  that  he  has 
been  transferred  to  a larger  ministry. 
He  is  a man  who  knows  when  to 
laugh ; he  knews  when  not  to  be  cross 
and  when  not  to  be  discouraged  over 
his  work.  He  will  help  your  young 
men  and  women.  I congratulate 
Middlebury  and  I congratulate  him  ; 
God  bless  both  and  all  of  you. 

JUDGE  DARLING. 

I have  long  been  interested,  said 
Judge  Darling,  speaking  for  Tufts, 


INAUGURATION  OF  PRESIDENT  THOMAS. 


28 


in  Middlebury  College.  And  when  I 
learned  that  there  was  to  be  a new 
President,  I trembled  lest  traditions 
should  be  broken  down  and  Middle- 
bury should  fall  a victim  to  the 
present-day  educational  trend.  Your 
words  have  relieved  me,  Mr.  President, 
and  I wish  to  say  to  you  that  from 
what  I heard  this  morning,  and  from 


what  I have  heard  this  afternoon 
from  the  educational  world,  I believe 
that  there  is  a coming  back  to  the 
ideals  of  Middlebury  College ; and  that 
the  day  will  come  when  you  will  be 
among  the  first,  and  strongest,  in 
upholding  the  traditions  that  have 
been  here  so  well  established. 


